07/30, 10:53am

We're mostly Mac users here, right? So, If you're like us, and you are, chances are you've come to realize that you need the ability to access the Internet on the go. Also, you've probably come to realize that your smartphone or tablet lacks some of the ease of use that a laptop does. If you're looking for a lightweight, portable solution without spending a lot of money on a MacBook Air, you might want to take a look at cloud-centric laptops, since iOS and OS X can access those services when you're at your main battlestation at home. We recently got our hands on an HP 14-inch 14-x030nr Chromebook and took a look at it to see how well it could meet our daily needs in the absence of OS X, check our review to see how well it worked for us.

07/30, 10:33am

Every day, alongside our regular Daily Deals post, we are showcasing some of the highlights within our own MacNN Deals store. Today's trio of offers are discounted software packages for your Mac that can make you more productive, including low cost PDF editing, drive management, and animation tools.

07/30, 9:20am

Samsung has endured yet another poor showing in its latest quarterly financial results, confirming warnings the manufacturer issued earlier this month. The Korean electronics giant achieved sales of 48.54 trillion won ($4.1 billion) in the second quarter, up from the previous quarter by 1.42 trillion won or 3 percent, but a drop from the 52.35 trillion won brought in for the same period last year, a fact reflected in other areas of the results.

07/30, 8:55am

Networking company D-Link today announced it is now shipping the spherical AC1900 Wi-Fi USB Adapter (DWA-192). Designed to bring faster speeds and extended range to laptops and desktop PCs, the DWA-192 boasts 3x3 internal antennas, operation on both 2.4GHz and 5GHz, and speeds of up to 1900Mbps.

07/30, 7:21am

Verizon has started to sell HBO's standalone streaming service, HBO Now, to its FiOS broadband customers. Following the lapsing of Apple's exclusivity period, Verizon is providing a 30-day free trial of the $15 service, which provides access to currently-broadcast programming as well as HBO's on-demand archive. Verizon Wireless customers won't be missing out for long, as HBO will apparently be included in Verizon's in-development Go90 Internet TV service.

07/29, 9:58pm

Microsoft's distribution of Windows 10 to users may be causing issues for some Internet users, due to the sheer amount of bandwidth being used. While Microsoft has apparently put a lot of effort into making the release of the free upgrade as error-free as possible, problems are still surfacing despite attempts by the software giant to minimize issues, including extremely slow download speeds for a number of updaters.

07/29, 8:04pm

As promised roughly a year after CarPlay was unveiled, German car maker Volkswagen is now shipping automobiles that include a next-generation infotainment system called MIB-II that includes support for both CarPlay and Android Auto along with its own proprietary suite of Car-Net apps, the latter of which requires a subscription. The company says that all but its entry-level models will feature the new MIB-II system.

07/29, 4:28pm

About 48 hours after offering a fifth developer beta of this fall's OS X 10.11 upgrade, Apple has made a "public beta" version available to registered testers, just a week after the last public beta, suggesting that more-or-less weekly updates will continue to appear through the testing process, a significant increase from the Yosemite public beta releases. The latest beta has the same focus areas as the previous beta.

07/29, 4:22pm

Verizon wireline workers, including telephone, cable, and FiOS service workers have voted to strike along the east coast of the US should the union see the need during the ongoing contract negotiation. Over 86 percent of the 39,000-strong workforce agreed to the strike, which could come as soon as August 1, the day the existing contract expires.

07/29, 3:19pm

Although Apple CEO Tim Cook remains "bullish" on the future of tablets, Apple and the market generally for tablets is declining as consumers continue to favor large-screen smartphones for tablet-like functions, and as companies struggle to figure out what the replacement cycle for the still-popular devices is or should be, says research firm IDC. According to Apple, it sold 11.2 million iPads (with shipments of 10.9 million) in its fiscal third quarter, down from 13.7 million sold in the previous quarter.

07/29, 3:02pm

Welcome to Daily Deals, the post where the staff of MacNN searches online retailers for offers, bundles, sales, and discounts on hardware, software, games, and gadgets for you, the discerning reader. Still-active deals from yesterday are accompanied by a new wave of offers, including up to $600 off a mid-2014 MacBook Pro, an Epson Home Cinema projector for $400, and the Lytro Light Field Camera for $80.

07/29, 2:20pm

It's no longer enough for Microsoft to add the odd new feature and scrub up the appearance of an app: the world has moved on, not least in that we now call them all "apps" instead of "applications." With Office 2016 now available to Office 365 users (if their companies have enabled it, or if they sign up themselves), our attention did go first to the new version of Microsoft Word. Office for Mac really contains four major applications (and OneNote, which we'll call a minor one) though, and while we personally might lump PowerPoint and Outlook together into the guest-cast category, Microsoft Excel 2016 15.11.2 is definitely a star of the show.

07/29, 1:23pm

App development has taken off in the last few years, making it increasingly difficult to stay on top of all the latest versions. To help all of you out, we here at MacNN are dedicated to sorting through new update releases, and highlighting some of the important ones, as well as showcasing apps that we find to be interesting. Today, we look at revisions to Duplicate Photo Finder, Tropico 5, Graphic Inspector, Picture Collage Maker, Audirvana Plus, and TextBatchConv.

07/29, 12:58pm

Teenagers performing a scam where they sold iPhone boxes filled with Play-Doh bricks have been arrested. Three teenagers have been charged by the Auburn Hills police near Detroit, Michigan over the scam, after they sold the weighted box to a Metro PCS store owner, reportsReuters. The store owner contacted the police after he encouraged the teenagers to perform a second sale of "more phones" to the store, with the group arrested upon their return. All three have entered not guilty pleas and are due in court for a pre-exam conference on August 3.